


Back to Work

by TimeandSpaceNovelist



Series: As Time Goes By [3]
Category: Doctor Who, Doctor Who & Related Fandoms, Doctor Who (2005)
Genre: Domestic, Domestic Fluff, Established Relationship, F/F, Fluff, Romantic Fluff, Talking
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-02-21
Updated: 2021-02-21
Packaged: 2021-03-19 02:29:18
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings, No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,859
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/29619222
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/TimeandSpaceNovelist/pseuds/TimeandSpaceNovelist
Summary: After a few weeks of living and travelling with the Doctor, Clara begins to feel a bit bored and desires something to keep her occupied.
Relationships: Thirteenth Doctor & Clara Oswin Oswald, Thirteenth Doctor/Clara Oswin Oswald
Series: As Time Goes By [3]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/2143041
Comments: 1
Kudos: 5





	Back to Work

Travelling with the Doctor always was an adventure. It went one hundred miles an hour, and it never stopped for anything. Dating the Doctor was usually more of the same, but with a lot more quiet time than before, and a lot of kissing. Clara enjoyed a lot of the advantages of dating the Doctor (particularly the kissing), but sometimes there felt like there was something missing. Zooming off to The Rings of Akhaten or taking a brief trip to Naples in the 60s for date night was fine and all, but it wasn't enough to keep her satisfied.

The first few months had been lovely. Being the sole inhabitants of the Tardis majority of the time left the Doctor and herself with a lot of time to travel and spend time alone, but lately, something felt different. The adventures and the travels were still fun, alone and with the Fam, but it was the time lounging around the ship that seemed to wear thin for Clara. She wanted to do... something. Not travel or go on adventures, but something to keep her active. She had read all the books she requested from the Doctor and had explored the new Tardis to her heart's content, but an immortal girl can only do so much before boredom sets in. She had her own ideas for what she thought could quell the boredom, but most of them weren't as good as she envisioned them when she thought them through. There was one idea that stuck out, but she would have to run it by the Doctor first. So she decided that one night, before they fell asleep together in bed, she would drop the question on her girlfriend and try to convince her to go along with it.

The Doctor sat in bed, glasses down on her nose, as she wired a radio to pick up channels from across the galaxy. Outside of wanting Clara to hear music from Kasorb, known for its soothing and relaxing melodies (seriously, it puts you to sleep in 30 seconds), the Doctor wired stuff to relax more. She had asked the Fam about ways to possibly deal with her anxiety and stress over Gallifrey and wiring became the result of their talks. This radio was quite easy to do as she chose it to make time while Clara got ready. She never understood why Clara took so long to get ready for bed. All she did was take a shower, brush her teeth, put on her pajamas and into bed she went. But she had to admit, Clara was taking longer than usual this time. She gave the Doctor the odd look during dinner but she didn't really pay it much attention. If anything was wrong, she trusted Clara to tell her what it was. She had just about finished wiring the radio when Clara's voice got her attention.

"Doctor. Can I ask you a question?" Clara asked as she came out of the bathroom, toothbrush and toothpaste in hand. She had wanted to brush her teeth first and complete her night routine before she talked to the Doctor but nerves prompted her to just get it out as soon as possible.

"It's nothing to do with the toothpaste, is it? I promised I'd never do that again." the Doctor asked, wanting to know the nature of her question. When she was that white-haired Scotsman, she fiddled around with Clara's toothpaste in her bathroom in her flat. One minute later, the walls were covered with toothpaste and the Doctor spent the afternoon cleaning it up.

"No, it's not about that. It's more than that. It's kinda important." Clara responded as she let the Doctor mull over that statement as she went to start brushing her teeth. The word "important", even if preceded by kinda, still held enough weight to concern the Doctor. Her mind raced with possibilities of what it could be, each being more worrisome than the last.

"Is everything alright? Are you ok?" the Doctor quickly asked her, wanting to get her attention. The two of them had kept enough secrets from each other and the Doctor hoped she wasn't finding out something too late.

"No, no! Everything's ok. It's fine. I'm fine," Clara reassured her as she finished up brushing her teeth, "honestly I don't even know why I'm going to ask this question. It's probably stupid."

"No, don't say that. No question from you is stupid to me. Whatever you need to ask of me, I will gleefully answer for you." the Doctor told her with a smile on her face as she did so as she saw Clara come back into the bedroom. Big or small, long or short, anything her Impossible Girl wanted to know, she would try her best to get it done.

Clara went towards her side of the bed and sat down, sighing as she did so. It was never going to be a simple question to ask and it might change their lifestyle, but she had to ask it. "Recently, I've been feeling a bit.. I don't know... bored. The travels are awesome, but just lying around in the Tardis can get tedious. So I was wondering, would you be OK with me trying something different?"

The Doctor's face fell slightly as she heard the statement and question. Her time with Clara had been some of the best of this regeneration, and she was so glad she had her back in her life. So she couldn't hide her disappointment at hearing that from her. But she knew Clara must have a good reason for it, and as much as her anxiety tried to convince her otherwise, she expected it wasn't her fault. "How long have you been feeling like this?" she asked, trying to gauge when the problem started.

"Last two weeks or so. Nothing too long." Clara admitted to her.

Now, the Doctor got a bit more understanding on the problem. She had taken the Fam on trips recently to ancient Greece and Tokyo in the year 3000, trips that Clara had stayed in the Tardis for. She wondered why Clara didn't tell her she wanted to go and stayed back. "If you wanted to, you could have come with us."

"I didn't want to be a tag along again. I've been on every trip with you guys since I moved in. You deserved some time together." This was something she had reservations with since she started living with the Doctor full time. The last thing she wanted to be was a fifth wheel and a burden.

"I told you before and I'll tell you again. The Fam love having you around. Yaz tells me she loves talking with you and you're the only one who seems to enjoy Graham's jokes." The Doctor told her as she sat up and took her hands in hers.

"I enjoy talking and being with them, but sometimes I wanna let you four be on your own. But it's not only that." Clara told her.

The Doctor sighed. She wasn't going to budge Clara from this feeling. The most she could do is help her try to understand her own way of thinking. "Fine then, what's the other thing?"

"I just want a new challenge. You spend your time between travelling and exploring the Tardis, but that's not me, at least not anymore. I don't know. These past few weeks have shown me that I need another thing to do, to conquer." Clara explained. It felt good to finally get that off her chest. It had nothing to do with the Doctor or Yaz or Ryan or Graham. This was something that she was dealing with.

"Alright, Genghis Khan. So what do you have in mind?" The Doctor asked, joking with Clara as she smiled.

Clara matched the smile, happy that the Doctor understood her problem. At least enough to joke around. "I... want to work again. Have a job. I haven't worked an actual job in ages."

"I imagine saving the universe is some kind of job." The Doctor told her with a cheeky grin as she danced her fingers up Clara's arm.

"Oh, please. That's part time at best, and we only do that job because you get the coordinates wrong, mostly." Clara said, chuckling with a slight blush as she felt the tingle of the Doctor's fingers climbing up her arm.

"What happened to you telling me that the Tardis takes us where we need to go and not where we want to go?" the Doctor told her with a smirk.

"Doesn't stop you from being a bad driver, does it?" Clara responded as she returned the smirk. That was one of the things she was glad for when she moved in with the Doctor. Her ability to pilot the Tardis hadn't improved much. It was something that reminded her that this was the same Doctor as before. It was familiar. She could hold on to that.

"Must you be so smug when you say that?" the Doctor said as she flashed an annoyed smile. Sometimes.. she wasn't exactly the most stellar pilot of her sexy. She was mostly hoping Clara wouldn't pick up on that.

"I'm only smug because I'm right, as usual. You've got a problem with that?" Clara asked, even more smugly.

The Doctor took Clara's face gently and kissed her. "I've absolutely no problem with that. In fact, I think it makes you look sexy."

"Good thing I'm always right then. So I'm always going to look sexy." Clara told her.

"Hahaha," the Doctor laughed sarcastically, "what jobs have you had in mind?" the Doctor asked, wanting to get back to the original subject. As much as she enjoyed that, they had an issue they needed to work out, which was important to Clara.

Clara's face contorted into one of deep thought. She had a few ideas of what job she wanted, but only really one rose above the rest. However, she wanted to hear what the Doctor had for an idea first. Maybe she might reconsider her idea and change directions. "Actually, I want to hear what you have in mind. I want something in Sheffield so the rest of the team and I can be picked up in the same area. Save you the hassle."

"Hmmm...," the Doctor said as she thought of jobs for Clara. She had to be honest, she never really paid attention to the jobs done in Sheffield when she was around there with the Fam. So she wasn't quite familiar with the job market. She only really had one idea, and even then, it wasn't entirely to help Clara. "How about a job at the police station, with Yaz? I'm sure she'd be appreciative of a familiar face there."

"What work am I gonna do in a police station, Doctor? Not exactly copper material, am I?" Clara said as she demonstrated by showing off her rather small stature. She did her part in helping fight with the Doctor and Ashildr and even got tough when she needed to. But doing it on a regular basis, she was unsure about.

"You don't have to be an actual police officer on the beat and stuff. Though, I remember you being very adept at using handcuffs on Sunday night..." the Doctor said with a devilish smirk as she teased Clara a bit and reminded her of their rather interesting experience in bed the other night.

Clara's face turned bright red. It was honestly a spur-of-the-moment thing. She was missing the Doctor a lot that day and Yaz left her handcuffs lying around (Ok, maybe Clara borrowed them from her room) and she decided to make date night with the Doctor a bit more interesting. She didn't remember the Doctor complaining, but she was a bit embarrassed at it. It wasn't really how she normally was. "Hey, you promised not to mention that unless I brought it up." Clara said, with a slight scold towards the Doctor.

"Hey, I had to. It was there for the taking. If you want to, you could be a detective. You've more than had your fair share of being good at detecting stuff. I could even get you in the easy way... "the Doctor suggested as she took up and waved the psychic paper in front of Clara. Yeah, it was cheating, but if it was a way to help out Clara, she wouldn't hesitate. She once took her out of the moment of her death to save her. Fibbing for a job was child's play to the Timelord.

"No, it's ok. I don't think I really want to get into police work. I'll try to help Yaz any other way I can, but it's not for me. Also, I don't want you cheating to get me in, even if I did want the job." Clara said as she took the psychic paper from her and put it back where it was. Earning the job was something she wanted to do. She didn't want it to be like she didn't work for. She wanted to get it on her own merit.

"Suit yourself. I still want to hear what jobs you had in mind. I have one idea in mind for what I think you want to do and I might have some connections for it." the Doctor said as a small smile grew on her face. 

Clara looked a bit intrigued at her significant other, but she spoke on what she had in mind, regardless. "I actually wanted to take back up teaching. I've missed making a difference in the lives of students and seeing them progress and grow. I know I moaned and groaned about it before, but time away from it really showed me how much it meant to me. So I want to do it again." she said with a smile as she remembered the fond occasions of her life as a teacher. 

"I thought so. Once you do, it, teaching is something you never really want to give up. I lectured at a university for about 60 years or so after we separated. I really enjoyed it and that urge to impart knowledge on people never went away." the Doctor said. She had taught her companions things over the years, but that was the first time she had any experience of actually being a teacher, at least on Earth. It served as another thing to keep her and Clara closer together, another thing in common between them.

"Oh, wow. That's great. I'm glad you know exactly how I feel. You said you had some kind of connection for me?" Clara asked. Now that she knew about the Doctor's understanding of her problem, she wanted to know exactly what she had planned for her.

"The Fam and I ended up working with a research scientist who worked at Sheffield Hallam University. It involved giant spiders. I'll explain some other time. She owes me a favor for you know, helping save the UK from giant spiders so I might be able to swing you in," the Doctor said with a warm grin, "unless, you still want no help from me and want to do it yourself..." she slyly told her.

"Well.... maybe a little help will be alright. Especially as it's because you did a nice thing for her." Clara said with a sheepish grin. 

"Uh huh," the Doctor said with a smug look on her face, "luckily for you, I can only get your name in the door. You're gonna have to prove to the people in charge why you should be hired." It wasn't gonna be as easy as getting in through with the psychic paper, but she had all the faith in the universe that she would get the job.

"I'm perfectly fine with that. Thank you so much!" Clara said as she hugged the Doctor and gave her a kiss, one that lasted a bit longer than intended. 

The Doctor got a sly grin on her face as Clara broke the kiss. She was more than happy for the thanks and possibly; she wanted a bit more of a reward. "Seeing as I helped you with such a big favor, perhaps you can repay me for it. Maybe a bit more of what you gave me there."

"Oh. You mean this?" Clara said as she slowly placed her lips upon the Doctor's once again.

"That indeed." the Doctor said as she began running her hands through Clara's hair. 

"How about we stretch out that repayment?" Clara requested as she slowly dipped the Doctor onto the bed.

"Let's do it." the Doctor told her as the two began kissing each other again, both very much focused on making the repayment last for as long as possible while enjoying each other along the way. Tomorrow would be a new day for both of them. The Doctor would contact Jade and Clara would go to make sure that the job was hers. Life was gonna change once again for the duo in a different direction than last time.

**Author's Note:**

> Back to work for Clara Oswald, but what subject do you think she should teach?......


End file.
